The first thing Bumblestar noticed when her consciousness stirred as that neither Violetfreckle nor Wolfhive were in the nest beside her. That struck her as odd, because usually she was a light enough sleeper to notice when either of them moved next to her in the middle of the night. Maybe she was finally starting to get some better sleep - or, more likely, maybe she was just succumbing to exhaustion and passing out much heavier during the night.
The second thing she noticed was that it smelled weird. Or rather, nothing smelled like anything at all. No scents of the camp, or her mate, or her son. Usually that meant she was dreaming. Was she dreaming?
Then came the scent of something rotting, and the feeling of something looming over her, so overwhelmingly powerful that it told her otherwise. Yeah, her first reaction absolutely was to attack an unfamiliar stranger lurking in her den.
Her eyes flew open, her claws sank into the bark, and without a moment's hesitation she whirled in her nest and sprang, forepaws arcing to loop around his neck in a fierce hold and her jaws snapping for his throat.
[ @
Mica ]